Harrison, Wallace Kirkman

Wallace Kirkman Harrison (1895 - 1981)

Wallace Kirkman Harrison, born 1895 in Worcester, Massachusettes, was an American twentieth-century architect. Harrison started his professional career with the firm of Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, and participated in the construction of Rockefeller Center. He is best known for executing large public projects in New York City based on a long friendship with Nelson Rockefeller, for whom worked as an adviser. His architectural partner from 1941 to 1976 was Max Abramovitz. In 1931 Harrison established an 11 acre (45,000 m²) summer retreat in West Hills, New York, which became a social and intellectual center of architecture, art, and politics. Frequent visitors and guests included Nelson Rockefeller, Robert Moses, Marc Chagall, Le Corbusier, and Fernand Léger, who waited out part of World War II.

Important Buildings:

United Nations headquarters complex, coordinating the work of an international cadre of designers, including Sven Markelius, Le Corbusier, and Oscar Niemeyer, among othersThe Time-Life Building at Rockefeller Center, New York CityThe Exxon Building at Rockefeller CenterLincoln Center for the Performing Arts, coordinating the work of Pietro Belluschi, Gordon Bunshaft, Philip Johnson, and Eero Saarinen, among othersThe Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln CenterThe Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza, Albany, New YorkThe Rockefeller ApartmentsThe Battery Park City complex, New York CityLaGuardia Airport, New York CityThe Hopkins Center, Dartmouth CollegeThe First Presbyterian Church, Stamford, ConnecticutThe New York Hall of Science at the 1964 New York World's FairHilles Library, Harvard UniversityThe National City Tower, Louisville, KentuckyTrylon and Perisphere for the 1939 New York World's FairErieview Tower, Cleveland, Ohio.